we shop at Aldi and our shopping has gone from £60-£65 at Tesco to £25-£35 (depending on what other non food items go in the basket) with Aldi. There are a few things we cant get there which i swear bt i.e. fairy washing tablets for the wee one. But all in all we love aldi and wont be going back anytime soon

Cooked meats and fruit & veg are great, cheeses are good, meat is so-so (I prefer mine to be free-range or outdoor-reared). Pesto is good. Couscous is fabulous too - I do mine with feta and roasted vegetables to make it a meal.

The continentsl plum tart (in freezer section) is divine with their delicious ready-made cartons of custard!

I personally find that the best way to shop at Lidl and Aldi is to get as much as possible there, and then go to a major supermarket for the rest (for me that's meat, washing powder, dishwasher tablets, wholemeal pasta, etc). I do stock up when these premium things are on special though you do need space for this!

I use both Aldi and Lidl for selected things, but I wouldn't be able to buy everything I need there. They are getting better at stocking certain things (obviously requested by customers) but the things I do buy are usually very cheap and quality is very good.
Aldi's current promotion for fruit is excellent - recently has inc pineapples, melon, butternut squash, satsumas, plums, kiwis, tomatoes, cherries, bananas all at 49p a carton or per kilo. Made me laugh when they were doing cherries at 49p for a big carton and other big supermarkets were advertising 'half price' at £1.99!!! Lidl isn't always so hot for fruit quality but they have had promotions where all veg and fruit is half price. Also Lidl recently came top (after M&S and Waitrose obviously) for their strawberries in a blind testing and were much better priced.
You do have to take your own bags, but this is less of a bother now as more stores are doing this so usually have bags in the car. They do sell bags and sometimes have boxes available. Also you 'pay' for the low prices with the few staff and lack of 'display' and they're a bit 'rough and ready' but that's the choice you make. I love Waitrose and shop there sometimes but you pay highly for the wonderful service they give!
Aldi and Lidl both do regular weekly specials which can be excellent value, but they can sell out of these very quickly - ie with Lidl within 10 mins of opening. You can find out more on their websites.
I suggest you give it a go and buy just a few things and see how you get on. My neighbours have just discovered Lidl and came home last week with 2 trolleys full of stuff and they are very discerning 'foodies' and 'winies'. They are still going on about how cheap everything was!
The other store I like which has some really good prices is Iceland - not just for frozen food. I've just bought 12 Andrex loo rolls for £3.75 and 36 Wheetabix for £2. Much cheaper than Tescos or Morrisons.

I prefer lidl to aldi, last week we popped into aldi and i was disgusted in the place!!it was a saturday the only fruit and veg left wwre tons of tomatoes, rotton apples and a horrible lettuce, all fridges were nearly empty and as above use by dates were rubbish, really put me off and i wont be going again! Might just be our brange but i wasnt impressed and then just as we were wlking out - after buying nothing! there was a mouldy block of cheese on the side YUK!!!
Were going to lidl this week they also do more band names at really good prices and alot of there things are similar to aldi!!

Aldi and Lidl terrible/none existent customer service skills!!

i do think aldi is really cheap and good to get the odd shop in but i cant do my "big shop" there because they never have everything i need. near where i live there is an aldi right next to a tesco so i always go in aldi first and get lots of what i need for cheaper than tesco but then what aldi hasnt got i nip into tesco to get
Only problem with aldi and lidl (nd its a pretty bug problem) is that the staff are sooooo rude!!! and im not just talking about in one or two shops every one of them i have ever been in iv come out feeling happy with prices but disgusted with "customer service" if you can even call it than! yes its cheap but i dont expect to be treated like im inconveinieng them to get cheap stuff!!!
my mum feels the same, and last time we went to an aldi together the woman on the checkout was sooo rude and kept tellin my mum to stop packing her shopping into bags at the till and do it on the shelves opposite! there wasn't even any one else waiting to be served!! its just rude!!!!!
to be honest im really considering stopping going in them all together because it just gets me so stressed!! lol

i only discovered aldi a few months ago but i LOVE IT!!!
i have to admit i dont do a full shop in there, but all the kids lunchbox stuff is bought in there. 10 packets of their equivelent skips/wotsits/quavers only a quid.
cereal bars 6 for a pound.
and fruit is dead cheap too.
my advice is definitely shop there, if not for everything, it certainly makes kids lunch boes hell of alot cheaper x

I agree with the comment about the staff at Aldi / Lidl, they talk over the tills to each other (when there is more than one till in operation), shout to each othr down the isles about gossip and personal stuff and totally ignore the customer and pile all the groceries on the tiny bit of shelf at supersonic speed!.
We take two really big shopping bags, quickly pile up the conveyor belt (heavy stuff first, bread, fruit and eggs last), open the bags out in the trolley and pile everything in. Once the checkout woman said " can you just put it all in your trolley and pack it over there to save time" to which I replied "Ok, exactly how does it save time if I have to put stuff in the open bags in the trolley, go over there, take it all out and put it back in? We have finished packing at the same time you have finished scanning items". She had no answer to this, just huffed, ignored me and told my husband the final amount - to which he took great delight carefully counting it out to the exact penny s-l-o-w-l-y.

Having said that, we go there for the fruit and veg and various other bargains then go to tesco for the remainder and petrol.

Aldi currently do a bottle of Crema de Limoncello which is scrummy, I've already put one away for christmas.